STATE-run Landbank of the Philippines and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) received majority of the subsidies given by the national government in November last year. To note, the total subsidies received by state-run firms like LandBank and PhilHealth from the national government nearly doubled in November compared to the same month in 2019.
Latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) got P22.783 billion in November, a 92.83-percent jump from P11.815 billion in the previous year.
From January to November, total subsidies to GOCCs reached P228.7 billion, further exceeding the amount disbursed for the entire 2019 at P201.524 billion.
The 11-month subsidies were also up by 29.85 percent from P176.122 billion in the same period in 2019.
To recall, subsidies released by the government to GOCCs for the January to October period amounted to P205.917 billion, already surpassing the total for 2019.
The national government provides subsidies to state-run firms to fund operations not covered by corporate revenues or to finance specific programs or projects.
For November alone, other government corporations cornered the biggest share of subsidies at P10.184 billion followed by government financial institutions (P10 billion) and major non-financial government corporations (P2.599 billion).
The LandBank got the biggest share of subsidies for the same month at P10 billion followed by the PhilHealth (P8.125 billion), the National Irrigation Administration or NIA (P2.481 billion) and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (P1.491 billion).
As for the January-to-November period, the bulk (49.4 percent) of the subsidies went to major non-financial government corporations (P113.04 billion) followed by other government corporations (P105.19 billion) and government financial institutions (P10.463 billion).
Leading the list of GOCCs with the biggest amount of subsidies received for the 11-month period is Social Security System with P51 billion after it has been used as a conduit for releasing Small Business Wage Subsidy Program aimed at helping micro, small and medium enterprises amid the economic recession.
Trailing the SSS are: PhilHealth (P38.57 billion); National Food Authority (P37.65 billion); NIA (P31.72 billion); and, the National Housing Authority (P18.078 billion).